Member

The consequences are written clearly in homelessness figures. Since the freeze period began in 2016, homelessness pressures have risen relentlessly. Over 134,000 households —that is a fairly large town—are now in temporary accommodation, including 176,000 children, the highest number ever recorded. Thousands of families are stuck in bed and breakfast accommodation for weeks and months, and there is now growing evidence that some of them are stuck for years, despite everyone knowing how damaging that is for children. It is the same story with rough sleeping: it has risen from 1,800 people in 2010 to 4,800 on the single night when we do the sleeping-out count—again, the highest figure on record. As Crisis has said very plainly,